Traditionally, data centers using classical Ethernet switches have implemented Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) to achieve fault tolerance. As discussed, HSRP typically operates in a two-node Active/Standby pair in which the node operating in the active state forwards the Layer 3 traffic upstream, and the peer node operating in standby purely provides redundancy. HSRP on virtual PortChannel (vPC) allows HSRP forwarding to be active on both nodes to fully utilize the dual connectivity to access. VPC+ extends this functionality to a two-node FabricPath spine using an emulated switch ID. As the number of nodes in a FabricPath network grows, there is a desire to utilize all the links connecting Layer 3 spines and make use of full bisectional bandwidth of the FabricPath network. In Anycast HSRP, all of the HSRP spine switches can forward Layer 3 traffic thereby allowing both fault tolerance and high bandwidth utilization. Traditionally, priority information associated with switching nodes of Anycast HSRP are transmitted using Hello messages, which may be bandwidth intensive in certain configurations.